Do Freezing and Heating Cycles Influence Differently on Soil Elements Leaching?

Research in forest ecosystems is focused on recent and past extreme events caused by drought, heat, storms and frost [1,2]. This research aims at exploring soil-specific processes of element leaching in relation to the impact of soil wetting cycles after freezing and heating. Loosely bound nutrients (ions/elements) react differently to thermodynamic conditions, which are interesting to analyze associated with climate change and soil water depletion. Soil drying is related to the increase in air temperature. Repeated drying and wetting increases mineralization of the organic matter, and thus increases the availability and losses of nutrients. The effect of freezing-wetting alters solution fluxes. Both processes are far from being predictable, and there is a lack of knowledge on this subject. The objective of this experiment was to investigate the effects of soil freezing-wetting and heating-wetting cycles on soil leaching processes. Our hypothesis is that freezing and heating of the soil, change the quality of the soil solute, i.e. mineral ions (Na+ , K+ , Ca2+, Mg2+, Al3+, Fe3+, Mn2+, NO2 - , SO4 2-, NO3 - , PO4 3-) concentrations in leachate. Two forest soil profiles, in European beech dominated stand on Mt Bjelašnica in Bosnia and Herzegovina (18˘15’44”E, 43˘42’25”N) were sampled. Soil type corresponded to Calcaric Cambisol (CA) and Chromic Cambisol (CH) according to IUSS Working Group WRB (2015). Soil was sampled by horizons (O, Ah, A/Brz, Brz1, Brz2). Porous plastic glasses were filled with 120g of air-dried soil, two representing different treatments (rewetting-freezing vs. rewetting-heating) and one representing the control. Treatments involved: a) four cycles of wetting the soil (2% intensity, 30’, 120cm3 ) and freezing (-10˘C) vs b) four cycles of wetting the soil (2% intensity, 30’, 120cm3 ) and heating for 3 hours at 40˘C. Control state involved wetting and drying at room temperature. After each wetting cycle, leachate was captured and left in freezer until determining concentrations of cations using Inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometer (Thermo scientific iCAP 6000 series) and anions using Dionex ICS 3000. We analyzed 16 samples per profile and per treatment, and 14 control samples, in total 78 samples. The results obtained through this study point that different thermodynamic conditions influence different leaching intensity of soil ions. On the one hand, higher intensity of leaching of Al, Fe and Mn in CH soil was linked with heating-wetting treatments. On the other hand, more intense leaching of Ca, Mg and Na in CC soil was observed after freezing-wetting treatment. The experiment also showed lower leaching intensity of anions after heating-rewetting compare to freezing-wetting. Freezing-wetting cycles, like in our experiment, seems to have higher effect on the ion losses from temperate forest soils

Resting energy expenditure assessment in anorexia nervosa: comparison of indirect calorimetry, a multisensor monitor and the Müller equation.

The aim of this study was to compare the estimations provided by three different means of measuring the resting energy expenditure (REE) in anorexia nervosa (AN) patients. REE was measured, after 24 h of refeeding, using a portable multisensor body monitor [SenseWear Pro2 Armband (SWA)], FitMate™ method and the Müller equation for individuals with body mass index < 18.5, the latter being based on dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry assessment of body composition. The mean differences between REE values estimated by SWA and those provided by the Müller equation and the FitMate™ method were significantly different from zero in both cases. In contrast, the mean differences between FitMate™ method and Müller equation were weakly significantly different from zero, and a significant correlation was noted between these two methods. In conclusion, the SWA does not appear to be an alternative to FitMate™ and Müller equation methods for assessing REE in AN patients

Social representations and the politics of participation

Recent work has called for the integration of different perspectives into the field of political psychology (Haste, 2012). This chapter suggests that one possible direction that such efforts can take is studying the role that social representations theory (SRT) can play in understanding political participation and social change. Social representations are systems of common-sense knowledge and social practice; they provide the lens through which to view and create social and political realities, mediate people's relations with these sociopolitical worlds and defend cultural and political identities. Social representations are therefore key for conceptualising participation as the activity that locates individuals and social groups in their sociopolitical world. Political participation is generally seen as conditional to membership of sociopolitical groups and therefore is often linked to citizenship. To be a citizen of a society or a member of any social group one has to participate as such. Often political participation is defined as the ability to communicate one's views to the political elite or to the political establishment (Uhlaner, 2001), or simply explicit involvement in politics and electoral processes (Milbrath, 1965). However, following scholars on ideology (Eagleton, 1991; Thompson, 1990) and social knowledge (Jovchelovitch, 2007), we extend our understanding of political participation to all social relations and also develop a more agentic model where individuals and groups construct, develop and resist their own views, ideas and beliefs. We thus adopt a broader approach to participation in comparison to other political-psychological approaches, such as personality approaches (e.g. Mondak and Halperin, 2008) and cognitive approaches or, more recently, neuropsychological approaches (Hatemi and McDermott, 2012). We move away from a focus on the individual's political behaviour and its antecedents and outline an approach that focuses on the interaction between psychological and political phenomena (Deutsch and Kinnvall, 2002) through examining the politics of social knowledge

Potential antimicrobial effects of pharmacognostic drugs

Pharmacognostic aspect, in treating of natural medicinal materials and medicinal of natural origin, is presented by very complex group of analytical and applicative methods. They are applied by means of identification, purities and quality of natural medicinal materials of vegetal, animal or mineral origin, more precisely of pharmacognostic drugs. A great number of drugs and their isolated products show the antimicrobial activities. The chemical substances, which are present in drugs, are currier of antimicrobial activities manifested by action on different bacteria, fungus, parasites and even viruses. The whole series of methods for analyzing of antimicrobial effects of drugs and the medicines in general are treated by scientific discipline microbiology. In order to complete the pharmacognostic analyses of drugs and there medicinal products, the microbiological analyses take a very important role. The antimicrobial and antifungal effects of series of plant materials, of pharmacognosticdrugs against the large number of bacteria and fungus Candida have been carried out. The drugs we analyzed were treated from their chemical point of view and that is the presence of: coumarins, mucus and anthraquinones. The contents of these substances in plant material were analyzed by method of thin layer chromatography that was published preliminary. The antimicrobial effects of analyzed drugs were determinate by using dilution method in antimicrobial analyses which have been carried out with decocts of drugs

Leadership, power and the use of surveillance: implications of shared social identity for leaders' capacity to influence

To ensure subordinates' compliance with organizational policies and procedures, those in positions of organizational leadership and authority have a number of resources at their disposal (e.g. rewards and punishments, surveillance, persuasion). When choosing strategies that will maximise their capacity to influence, however, leaders cannot afford to overlook the role of social identity processes. Evidence from two studies shows that the success or otherwise of strategies such as rewards/punishments and surveillance depends on whether the leader is considered to be an ingroup or outgroup member. In line with hypotheses, the results indicate that while surveillance may be a necessary tool in the repertoire of outgroup leaders (Experiment 2), in the hands of ingroup leaders it is likely to attenuate rather than enhance their capacity to influence (Experiments 1 and 2)